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Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

This book explores the concept of creativity by advocating for the idea of borrowing and adapting ideas from the works of others as a means to enhance one's own creative process. more

Author

Austin Kleon
Austin Kleon

Austin Kleon is an American author known for his unique writing style and insights into the creative life. His works often focus on balancing work and life, as well as inspiring personal creativity. Kleon's books, 'Steal Like an Artist' and 'Show Your Work!', have been well-received by readers worldwide. more

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“How Not to Use AI (Sonnet 2651-2652) Every artist has a central art, an art that defines their life, keep that art pure and human, till the day you die. The medium may change with time, but the material must be human. I repeat, AI may assist humanity, but not substitute humanity. Humans are not much bright to begin with, with all our jungle biases and prejudices, and leaning heavily on generative ai, would only turn society into meatmarket. AI is not the problem, mindlessness is, in fact, it's stupid not to make use of a marvelous new instrument out of rigidity, but you must draw a clear line between human originality and ai assistance. For example, I literally cannot remember when was the last time I picked up a physical pen, as all my books are written on a computer. And at some point, I might even consider using AI for minor bookcover edits, not generate the cover mark you, but strictly for tweaks of the images. I won't even let your little bards and byrons anywhere near my writing, let alone algorithms. I am Naskar, the canon is Naskar, it'll remain Naskar, till the universe collapses and the next one begins.”

WritingArtArtistLiteratureCreativityWriterArtificial IntelligencePlagiarismGenerative AiChatgpt
Book:With Love From A Blue Rock
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“But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of the Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can truly say to every group of Christian friends "You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another." The Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others. They are no greater than the beauties of a thousand other men; by Friendship God opens our eyes to them. They are, like all beauties, derived from Him through the Friendship itself, so that it is His instrument for creating as well as for revealing. At this feast it is He who has spread the board and it is He who has chosen the guests. It is He, we may dare to hope, who sometimes does, and always should, preside. Let us not reckon without our Host.”

LoveGodFriendshipDivine
Book:The Four Loves
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“As a rule the model, nowadays, is a pretty girl, from about twelve to twenty-five years of age, who knows nothing about art, cares less, and is merely anxious to earn seven or eight shillings a day without much trouble. English models rarely look at a picture, and never venture on any aesthetic theories. In fact, they realise very completely Mr. Whistler's idea of the function of an art critic, for they pass no criticisms at all. They accept all schools of art with the grand catholicity of the auctioneer, and sit to a fantastic young impressionist as readily as to a learned and laborious academician.”

Art
Author:Oscar Wilde
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“You are not starting with a blank canvas. You already carry a rich history of experiences, skills, and sensitivities, even if you have never taken an art class or held a paintbrush with confidence. Everything you have learned, endured, and noticed so far is raw material. The practical skills you’ve built while raising a family, running a household, or managing a career are part of your creative toolkit, waiting to be used in new ways.”

ArtCreativity And Motivational
Book:Be an Artist
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“Normalizing Case Specific AI Use (Naskaristana 2663-2666) Don't waste your time on the dilemma of, to use or not to use ai, ask instead, how can you use ai in your particular field, without compromising your integrity! It's not about avoiding ai, it's about delegating menial tasks to ai - fire, steam, electricity, internet, ai, these are all tools, sooner or later you will adopt it, and this comes from a person whose literature was heisted without consent to train algorithms, among many other living writers. Sure, unlike electricity and internet, the origin of gen-ai is downright dubious, so much so that even bombing these ai companies would not be unjustified, just like bombing america would be a great humanitarian initiative, but that won't solve the exploitation problem in the long run - so we'd have to find meaningful alternatives to deal with such contraptions of heinous origins, instead of just freaking out, whether it's algorithm or america. AI slop is still slop, American history is still a crimescene, therefore we have to deslopify ai, and disinfect america of its foundational knack for terrorism. Also, one more thing, ai is a radically new territory, even the makers of ai don't know what they're doing, so don't expect to figure out everything overnight, don't be too hard on yourself pressured by hypocrites; the idea is not to outsource your ideas, whether to ai or to hypocritical primates, so take your time, and figure out your own ethics of ai in case specific context. Use ai to be more meaningful than productive - for example, bring inspiring figures to life, and make them have discourse with each other, but always maintain their original texts. Or like I recently (March, 2026) used ai to produce a few audio materials, based on some of the sonnets, these tracks sound like music but they are not, even though the lyrics are mine, it's not music until I pick up the guitar and sing myself, or some real musician does; I see these ai audio tracks as accessibility extensions - in fact, accessibility could be the greatest boon of ai. The canon is the art, the audios are just more courier, both the ai tracks and my own voice recordings. Main point is this: music without musician is not music, poetry without poet is not poetry, art without artist is not art, simulation without experience is delusion. You can 3d print furniture, but you cannot 3d print art - and alas, only a true artist can know what this means!”

ArtTechnologyInnovationAiArtificial IntelligencePlagiarismGenerative AiChatgptEthics And TechnologyAl Slop
Book:With Love From A Blue Rock
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